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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 3 |
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33 stories matching bubbl
- The Steilacoom Bubble That Burst
A grand, failed railway scheme proves that even the most ambitious 'railroad kings' can't build an empire without a single cent in the bank.
- The Meteor That Set a Lagoon Boiling
A blazing object fell from the sky over Chimacum, terrified Jefferson County farmers who thought the world was ending, and left a lagoon bubbling hot enough to cook eggs hours later.
- The Tragedy at the Soap Factory
A local businessman meets a horrific end after falling into a vat of boiling grease.
- The Speculative Bubble: Why Seattle’s Rents Are Unsustainable
An editorial in the *Seattle Daily Intelligencer* warns that rampant real estate speculation is driving up costs for actual producers, urging a return to sensible valuation before the inevitable crash.
- The Fever and the Fall: Life in a Frontier Boomtown
A vivid account of the psychological and physical intensity of rapid urban growth—and the devastating silence left behind when the bubble bursts.
- The Beer-Fueled Plot to Steal a Populist Club
Seattle's First Ward Populists packed a hall over John Considine's theater to stop Democrats from capturing their club—and the meeting turned into a brawl of speeches, resignations and accusations.
- The Day Seattle Rode the Rails to Lake Union
In 1872, the completion of the Seattle Coal Company’s railway from the waterfront to the lake offered a thrilling, soot-stained excursion for a city eager to join the industrial age.
- The $430,000 Question: King County's Treasurer Bond Fight
A taxpayers' committee demands commissioners reduce John Maple's bond and seat him as county treasurer, but the board says his sureties aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
- The Boom Era's Bitter Hangover
New tax assessments reveal that local property values have cratered to one-fourth of their peak as the Grays Harbor economy struggles to adjust to the end of a speculative bubble.
- Irrigation Rights Dispute Bubbles Up at Hanford
A standoff between local landowners and the Hanford company over water delivery terms threatens to reach the courtroom.
- The Hop Bubble Bursts: Snoqualmie's Famed Ranch Sold at Auction
Once the largest and most profitable hop ranch in the country, the 1,240-acre Meadowbrook Farm goes to the highest bidder for $52,800 after a crash in hop prices and a receivership.
- The Underworld War Over Seattle’s Gambling Dens
A rival gambling faction uses the press to smear the Chief of Police while police corruption allegations bubble up in the city’s saloons.
- The Miracle at Moxee: Water Strikes the High Ground
A homemade rotary drill finds artesian water where experts feared it was impossible, turning arid desert into potential farmland.
- The Seal Pup Wars: A Local Naturalist vs. The Smithsonian’s ‘Sense-Keeper’
James G. Swan, a long-time Neah Bay resident and customs inspector, challenges Henry W. Elliott’s decades-old claim that newborn fur seal pups sink like stones, offering eyewitness testimony from Captain Elijah McAlmond that they swim.
- A Nail-Biter at Madison Street Park
Seattle edges out Spokane in a tense, hard-fought baseball match decided by late-game heroics.
- The Wagon King Tells Seattle to Build Roads and Put Idle Men to Work
Clem Studebaker, visiting from South Bend, says Puget Sound is beautiful but backward: good roads, an army-built highway system, and the Nicaragua canal would cure unemployment.
- A Body in the Ashes at Rolling Bay
An eyewitness to the coroner's inquest corrects the Post-Intelligencer's lurid account of a bullet-scarred, half-burned corpse found in a shack on Bainbridge Island — and lays out his own theory of an unsolved Kitsap County killing.
- A Seattle Preacher Tells Society Women They Are Marching Their Children to the Gallows
Preaching to women only on "Dying Mothers and Starving Children," Rev. M. A. Matthews calls society "the emptiness of emptiness" — and blames card parties, prizes and maternal neglect for juvenile crime.
- The Bust After the Boom in Whatcom County
A local assessor grapples with the fallout of a real-estate bubble, lowering property valuations to match actual economic conditions.
- The Great Swimmin' Hole Scandal
A group of local boys face the judge for skinny-dipping in the Columbia, sparking a call for a proper municipal dressing house.
- A Gushing Future at Deep River?
A discovery of high-grade petroleum gas in Washington state sparks dreams of a regional energy boom.
- Explosion at the Gas Well
A routine water-drilling operation in Whatcom turns into a hazardous discovery when a match ignites a pocket of natural gas.
- A Farmer's Prayer Amidst Economic Ruin
A poem penned in Seattle during the difficult economic climate of 1891, reflecting on the loss of a farm and the indignity of a wealthy neighbor's hollow piety.
- The Hidden Poison in Your Pantry
An official investigation exposes the widespread use of ammonia and alum in common baking powders, arming local housewives with kitchen-tested methods to unmask the dangerous additives.
- The Self-Appointed Island Hermit
An account of a weary traveler who found 'paradise' in the San Juans, living a life of isolation among the islands' untouched natural bounty.